China's deep underground drinking water sources aresafe, an official at the Ministry of Water Resourcessaid on Monday in response to a news reportsuggesting that more than 80 percent of the water inChina's aquifers is too polluted for humanconsumption.

针对此前有新闻报道称我国超8成地下水污染严重，不能供人饮用，水利部一名官员于周一回应称，我国深层地下水的饮用水水源是安全的。

The official, Chen Mingzhong, said monitoring doesnot show that underground sources of drinking waterare threatened, since most of the country's water for human consumption is extracted fromdeep underground, not near the surface.

这名名叫陈明忠的官员表示，监测并没有显示出饮用水的地下水源受到了威胁。因为我国地下水饮用水水源主要取自深层地下水，并非浅层地下水。

Monitoring by the ministry shows that about 85% of the 1,817 groundwater sources used toextract drinking water meets quality standards, and the 33 groundwater sources that supplydrinking water to cities with populations larger than 500,000 all meet water quality standards,Chen said.

陈明忠说道，水利部监测数据显示，1817个地下水饮用水水源地中，水质达标率为85%左右；33个供水人口50万以上的地下水饮用水水源地中，水质全部达标。

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a non-governmentalenvironmental protection organization, said most cities in China are using water from deepunderground - which is not easily contaminated - for drinking.

非政府环境保护组织公众环境研究中心所长马骏表示，中国大多数城市都是用不容易被污染的深层地下水作为饮用水的。

"However, many people in rural areas are still drinking shallow groundwater. Contaminationcould affect them," he said.

他说：“然而，许多农村地区的人仍然饮用浅层地下水。污染可能会影响到他们。”

Data from the Ministry of Land and Resources show that among 657 Chinese cities, more than400 were using groundwater for drinking. More than 70 percent of people nationwide drinkgroundwater.

来自国土资源部的数据显示，在中国657座城市中，超过400座城市使用地下水作为饮用水。全国超过百分之70的人在饮用地下水。